Archbishop Paulinus Costa of Dhaka receives Human Rights award

(March 04, 2010) Archbishop Paulinus Costa of Dhaka has received a major domestic human rights award for his efforts in fostering communal harmony in Bangladesh. The Human Rights Legal Aid Society handed out awards to eight people for their “significant” contributions in defending human rights in Bangladesh. The awards were presented by Supreme Court Chief Justice Fazlul Karim in Dhaka on February 27. Archbishop Costa was nominated in the “communal harmony” category. “To establish good governance in the country, human rights have to be established for the people. Communal harmony contributes significantly to human rights,” Karim said when presenting the award. “I believe Archbishop Costa’s contributions will remain an exemplary and imitative milestone for future generations,” he asserted. Kamrus Salehin, chief coordinator of the award committee, said: “We chose the archbishop for his significant contributions in establishing communal harmony through peace and solidarity.” Archbishop Costa said the award will inspire him to work more for communal harmony. “We can easily build a world of peace being dutiful to our own religion and respecting those of others.” he said. “This is not my achievement but the achievement of the whole Church,” he said.